IBM Corp seems to have discovered by default, that courtesy of cut down versions of its OS/2 and PC DOS 7.0 operating systems, it has been in the embedded market for some time, and is now pushing two small, embedded Web browsers, WebBoy for DOS, and the soon to be announced all-Java NetDiver for anything with a Java Virtual Machine. Pioneered by IBM Japan Ltd, WebBoy, or the Micro Web browser, offers a tiny browser that will run in as little as 700kb, including the Micro PM graphical user interface library, and is being touted as ideal for Web-enabling small hand-held devices. It provides high functionality in around 2Mb of memory. The other major target area is IBM’s existing PC DOS installed base. WebBoy can turn an old, redundant 80386 PC into an Internet device. WebBoy is optimized for PC DOS 7.0, released last year, but will run on version 5.0, the company says. NetDiver, also developed in Japan, is due to be released in the next few weeks. While it has a slightly larger footprint than WebBoy, NetDiver is still small enough for all those Webconnected mobile phones, pocket faxes, set-top boxes and whatever else manufacturers will dream up to connect to the Internet. It will, says IBM, be one of the first applications for embedded OS/2, and has been developed for both the English and Japanese markets. Looks like the next thing IBM will be squeezing down into these embedded devices are applications like Lotus Notes. Watch this space.
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